Perez Family
Once one of the most powerful cattle families in the San Fernando area they have since fallen from grace and have become a shadow of its formal self. Founded by Samuel Perez the family has been raising and driving cattle since Samuel purchased his first ranch. History Foundation The Foundation of the Perez Family empire and fortune can be best linked back to when Samuel and Isabel Perez first moved to the San Fernando area from their previous residence in Tampico. The couple didn't have much when they first moved to the Cattle Country except for their savings from working within the Protectorate. With these savings, they purchased a small ranch and a few heads of cattle and soon took to selling them for profit. However, they weren't able to sell cattle at a rate that could compete with the bigger cattle drivers, thus forcing Samuel to look for another way to take his family to the top. This came to him when he was out hunting one day with his close friend and fellow rancher Harrison McLain when they came upon a nesting area for Mirelurks and after shooting a few of the crustaceans they found a nest full of eggs. An idea struck Samuel and he grabbed up a handful and returned back to the ranch with his friend Harrison. There he resolved that he would raise the eggs and create a herd of domesticated Mirelurks. Harrison thought he was crazy. And succeed he did, when they had hatched and grown, the mirelurks had been tamed (they wouldn't attack Samuel or his family, but they did kill the dog), thus he was able to round them up and after lining up a buyer in Zap-City he drove them up North to that seedy border town. With this successful first drive, with a stack of caps in his pocket and another batch of eggs being incubated, he became the only Mirelurk rancher in all of the Cattle Country. With this status, he slowly began to work his way up to the top of the food chain in the San Fernando area. Rise to Power The Perez Family's rise to power came at the expense of the Mackalls. The Mackalls, led by their patriarch, Jonn Mackall were another rising star in San Fernando and when they heard of the Perez Family's growing power they immediately made a move to try and stem it, by hiring a gang of mercenaries to run Samuel and his growing family off their new estate. Samuel, who had just gotten his family membership in the San Fernando Cattlemen's Association countered thus by hiring his own band of mercs and went to Jonn's ranch to force him to back down. However, Jonn remains defiant, even when confronted with armed men. Instead, he challenged Samuel to a duel, this led to both side's hired guns getting involved and ended with most of Jonn's men being killed in the process along with their leader. Samuel is forced to spend a few weeks in a nearby hospital and when he leaves, he immediately buys up the Mackalls' former land. This starts a process of violent intimidation and killings across the San Fernando area, all resulting in Samuel and his family growing in power across the Country. One particular run in involved the once powerful Avalos Family. The Avalos had been ranching in San Fernando almost as long as the Jackson Family had lived in Tamaulipas and they could trace their lineage back to a pre-war colonel in the Mexican Army, a heritage they were rather proud of. Thus, with such a long family history they had had plenty of time to build up their ranching operations and had quickly earned themselves a top spot among the ranching elite in San Fernando, that is until their range war with the Locklear Family. The Locklears were the descendants of a family of Comanches who had fled to Mexico to escape the wrath of the US Cavalry, only to find death and forced domestication at the hands of the Mexican Army. From there the Locklears had gradually raised themselves up from the ashes of their tribe and by the time 2187 came around they were a powerful family in the Country. To make a long story short the Avalos attempted to take some land from the Locklears in an attempt to expand their herds' grazing space. The Locklears, in turn, got a force of hired guns and confronted Angelo Avalos and his men. The two sides shot it out and this triggered a series of skirmishes and gunfights that eventually involved several cattle families, and such men like Salvador Calavera and Cheyenne Foster. Eventually, the Range War ended with the Locklears coming out on top and taking a large portion of the Avalos' land with them. The Avalos themselves had lost their family patriarch; Angelo, who was then replaced by his oldest son Ennio. Ennio did alright in his first years as the head of the family, he managed to recollect the family's assets and start them back on the road to the top, however, the stress of the job got to him and he took to drinking. In the end, Ennio's youngest son Martin took over the family when Ennio ran off and thus started the conflict between the Perez Family and Avalos. Eager to redeem his family who by now had become a laughing stock of San Fernando, Martin arranged for a large group of mercenaries to be contracted to his family and when they arrived he planned to take over the Perez's ranch simply by sheer weight in numbers. Yet when Samuel got wind of this particular plot against him he and his gang of mercs set off to head the rival forces off. Setting themselves up in a small pass in the northern part of the country, they waited as the mercenaries entered the pass. When they did, they opened fire, the mercenaries were massacred in the hail of gunfire they walked into and those who were left scampered back North back to their employers. This attack was then followed by Samuel marching his men down to the Avalos ranch, where they promptly broke down the door to Martin's personal home and rounded up Martin's family, resulting in three deaths of the Avalos family. Samuel and his men then promptly forced Martin to sign a form, handing over the ranch and all his land to him in exchange for his wife and children. The rest of the family were returned only after the Avalos' land and herd had been handed over. This conflict with the Avalos is only one in hundreds of conflicts, fights and instances of intimidation involving such groups as the Valverde Family, the LeGrande Ranching Clan, and later even the powerful Locklears. However as all the families found themselves on the losing end of conflicts with the Perez Family, one family found themselves benefiting from the growing power of the Perez Family, the McLains. The McLain Family had been longtime allies of the Perez Family but had shied away from participating in the various range wars the family involved itself in. Rather, it used the now open market to expand its operation, becoming the second strongest ranching family in the San Fernando area. This position lasted even during the fall of Perez Family and their flight to Valle Hermoso. Attack on the Perez Estate The attack on the Perez estate came out of nowhere, but needless to say the years of harassment of other ranchers, attack on homesteads and other cut-throat tactics brought the attack onto the family. It happened at night as several dozen members of the San Fernando Anti-Cattle Rustling Committee surrounded the house and after cutting down several of the family's mercenaries they attacked the estate itself. In a battle that lasted several hours, the Perez Family's private force of mercenaries was either killed, captured or run off by the Committeemen, ending with Samuel Perez fighting to the death inside his manor, which after it was cleaned out was promptly burned to the ground. As for the surviving mercenaries, they were marched back to San Fernando and publicly hanged for their crimes. However Samuel's last stand allowed for his family, escorted by his family's personal bodyguard; Mike Carrera, to escape from the estate with a small herd of cattle and Mirelurks. They promptly turned North, and after two weeks of traveling ended up in the town of Valle Hermoso. Led by Samuel's wife they traded most of their herd for a home and some food. From there she led them until her death and when she passed on Samuel's oldest son; Alexander took over as family patriarch. Move to Valle Hermoso It was when Alexander first became head of the Perez Family affairs that things took a turn for the worst for the Perez Family. Ronald Perez, the family's second oldest son had for many years been a rather odd fellow. He had subscribed to many old practices and had been known for being a bit of an outcast among the family, but never once had he ever seemed anything more than a bit lost. Thus, it was a surprise when one day he shot his younger brother James down while cutting grains in the family's fodder field. The killing came as a surprise for everyone in the family, but the terror only continued. Using the justification of blood atonement, Ronald had his small group of friends attempt to kill his brothers for reason that are to this day still unknown. But the result was, Anthony Perez being chased clear out of Mexico and it was rumored he ended up in New California, then there was Alexander Perez. Grieving over the death of James he narrowly missed being killed by Ronald himself and if Mike Carrera hadn't stepped in and stopped Ronald the Perez family dynasty probably would've ended there. But the split second actions of Mike saved Alexander and allowed for the family to live on. However even after the death of Ronald, the family was still broken and with it, it's power. They didn't have the same kind of leverage, prestige or respect in Valle Hermoso as they had down in San Fernando and thus struggled to try to get and maintain any kind of power within the region and as a result had to content themselves as a third-rate cattle family that couldn't even scratch up enough caps to afford a decent estate. Their struggles were even furthered when Mike Carrera, while escorting a cattle drive of fifty beeves North of the border he and the rest of the cowhands on the drive were killed by mercenaries hired by the Falfurrias Cattlemen's Association. Present Presently the family is under the control of Matias Perez, the grandson of Ronald Perez. It is still struggling to make a name for itself in Valle Hermoso and trying to fight against the encroaching cattle families of Valle Hermoso and the xenophobic ranchers of Falfurrias. Organization The Perez Family is organized much in the manner as you find a business organized, with a CEO (Patriarch or Matriarch), a CFO, a chief of operations and manager of cattle drives. *CEO - Samuel Perez (2187-2243), Isabel Perez (2243-2245), Alexander Perez (2245-2267), Matias Perez (2267-Present) *CFO - Ronald Perez (2224-2244) *Chief of Operations - Mike Carrera (2238-2259) *Manager of Cattle Drives - Anthony Perez (2225-2244) Activities & Interests The Perez's tend to keep themselves busy managing their herds of Longhorns and Mirelurks. The Mirelurks especially require a lot of attention and care. This is due to the fact the Mirelurks are liable to attack anyone or anything that isn't their mother or father figure and thus require some very sturdy fencing to keep them penned up. Outside of keeping them away from the locals, they have to constantly be sprayed down with radioactive water, requiring the donning of a radiation suit and the use of an archaic hose-pump system attached to a small reservoir full of irradiated water. Outside of tending to their animals, they spend their time running rustlers, comancheros, and other manner of lowlifes off of their property and of course dealing with their land-hungry neighbors who have made it a habit of grabbing up whatever sort of land that they think they can seize with as little effort as possible. Category:Mexico Category:Tamaulipas Category:Groups